This simple and Easy Vegan Pesto recipe is fresh, oil-free, just 6 ingredients and takes just a few minutes to prepare. Healthy and wholesome with lots of fresh basil and pine nuts!
EASY VEGAN PESTO
I have always loved pesto. I love it even more with it is a healthy pesto, as well as being extremely simple and easy to make with only a few ingredients. This easy vegan pesto is oil-free, unlike traditional pesto, which has crazy amounts of oil.
This recipe comes from Emily Von Euw and her cookbook, The Rawsome Vegan Cookbook. As Emily describes it, “A balance of Raw and Lightly-cooked, Gluten-free, Plant-based Meal for Healthy Living”.
Emily’s blog, This Rawsome Vegan Life, is extremely successful and even though she is known for raw food, I love that this book has a ton of cooked recipes. I do not follow a raw diet, so this fits more into my daily lifestyle and eating. Emily is also known for her simplicity, which you all know I love and focus on as well with my own recipes.
Her book contains over 80 recipes, all accompanied with a beautiful photo, and very easy meals. They are all heavily focused on the simplicity and beauty of veggies. The meals are light, not heavy, so they won’t weigh you down. There are a ton of completely raw recipes and also a lot of lightly-cooked recipes. If you check out Emily on Instagram, you can get a pretty good idea of the type of food you would see in her cookbook! Light, fresh, easy and simple.
I was immediately drawn to this oil-free vegan pesto that I’m sharing with you today because I loved how easy it was and I LOVE basil. Oh, and I LOVE pasta and wanted something more on the filling side. This has a strong flavor from all of the fresh basil and bold flavor of pine nuts.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
- Fresh basil
- Pine nuts
- Garlic
- Pasta: I used gluten-free penne, but use whatever you like.
- Grape tomatoes
- Nutritional yeast
- Lemon juice
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN PESTO OIL FREE
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Cut all the tomatoes in half and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are bubbling and slightly wrinkled.
Step 2: Cook pasta according to the package directions.
Step 3: To make the pesto: blend all the ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. I wanted mine completely smooth. As noted above, I also added lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Add more salt if needed
Step 4: Toss pasta with the pesto and serve with the roasted tomatoes.
MORE VEGAN OIL FREE SAUCES
- Vegan Chimichurri Sauce
- Poblano Pepper Cream Sauce
- Texas BBQ Sauce
- Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
- Vegan Lemon Sauce
- Best Vegan Alfredo Sauce
- Creamy Chili Sauce with Pasta
Emily is allowing me to share this beautiful recipe for her cookbook with you all today! You can purchase a copy of her cookbook here!
Easy Vegan Pesto (Oil-free!)
Ingredients
- 1 dry pint (275g) grape tomatoes
- 2 cups (232g) uncooked whole grain, gluten-free penne pasta
- 2 cups (48g) lightly packed basil leaves
- 1/4 cup (60g) water
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/4 teaspoon himalayan salt
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/2 a lemon, or as much as you'd like, to taste
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Cut all the tomatoes in half and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are bubbling and slightly wrinkled.
- Cook the pasta according the package directions.
- To make the pesto: blend all the ingredients until you reach the desired consistency. I wanted mine completely smooth. As noted above, I also added lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Add more salt if needed.
- Toss the pesto with the cooked pasta and garnish with extra basil and serve with the roasted tomatoes.
Notes
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Enjoyed this last night. The bones of this recipe are great. Being on an oil-free, no nuts, vegan diet I need to adjust most every recipe I come across. If anyone else has this issue, here is what I changed up:
Upped the nutritional yeast and an extra clove of garlic. I had a Meyer Lemon on hand and that added an enhanced lemon accent. Sub’d water for veg broth (College Inn or Kitchen Basic are oil free), Sub’d pine nuts with a 1/2 can of drained/rinsed great northern beans. That helps with the creaminess and gives a little protein kick.
I’ve tried and saved several of your recipes and truly appreciate you for them!
I was nervous about making a Pesto sauce without oil but it was a huge hit in my house and simple to make! This is my husband’s new favorite dish (we used whole-grain rotini). I omitted the salt and added extra lemon juice. I added some mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini that we had on hand. I’ll be making this again very soon and doubling the recipe for freezing. My kids also loved this pesto so it’s a win-win : )
Simple to make and tastes great. I like pesto with texture so I pulsed it in the Vitamix.
As always, this recipe was simple, tasty, and healthy.
The pesto is so flavorful I could eat it everyday!
Perfect! My family loved it.
Awesome Kari!
Any idea on the calories ect
Thank you for posting this no oil pesto recipe! My basil plant is now a Bush and anxious to make my own pesto without all that oil other recipes call for.
Oh yay, hope you love it!
Really easy and tastes great! I definitely recommend the lemon juice and nutritional yeast addition!
Awesome Lis! Yes, I agree. Her base recipe is good but I prefer more flavor so that’s why I recommended those additions!
My favorite recipes are baked ones & raw desserts because baking is a skill that I just cannot wrap my head around. It still feels like magic to me! I don’t need recipes to cook & am a full house of inspiration upon opening the fridge for dinner, but baking still stumps me! (Mostly because I don’t measure anything…. maybe that has something to do with it :P)
Thank you so much Hauke! That is just a decor fabric, not a legit table napkin, haha!
I love raw desserts. I don’t make them very often, but I’m a fan of raw cashew-based cheesecakes.
Raw Desserts, esp raw carrot cake!!
I’d have to say that smoothies would be my favorite. =)
Congrats to Emily on her new book. I absolutely love pesto. Thanks for the delicious recipe! 🙂